Habemus National Action Plan!

UK Open Government Network
1

Hi all,

I have just received news that the UK Open Government Action Plan will be published at around 10am on Tuesday 28th May.

The govt plans a soft launch - online publication, and possibly the Govt Anti-Corruption Champion John Penrose will make a reference to the plan in his speech at the Summit.

I also wonder all along if its been Theresa May who has been blocking the process. Now that is a fun opengov conspiracy theory.

Anyway, in terms of our plans, given the news today, we will probably want to reformulate the ‘assuming an action plan is published’ statement. The first statement which was collecting singatures is now shelved.

The statement which we could publish maybe during the conference, or just as it started as before, could focus a little more on ‘new prime minister, new start,’ ‘hope for a new start etc’.

I am about to get on my flight to Canada for the summit so I cannot work on this - if people in the network can offer their opinions and ideas here, that will be very useful so I can work on this once I land, and get something drafted.

thanks!

Andreas

2

Hi Andreas,

Good news! In terms of the new statement, I think we need to be very strong on calling for better under the next PM. Something along the lines of “This is an opportunity to reinvigorate Open Government in the UK and ensure it’s a focal point of the next Government”.

Hope you have a safe flight. See you in Ottawa.

Jess

3

Hi Andreas,

I’m not sure it would be plausible to suggest that the change of prime minister could breathe more life into the UK’s Action Plan. Anyone who knows anything about the UK will know that the new PM is going to have just one thing on his or her agenda, and it isn’t going to be open government.

A less optimistic but more honest comment might be to reflect on the commitment needed to keep momentum on this issue going even in favourable circumstances and how much harder it all becomes when the whole government machine is trying to cope with a major crisis.

All the best

Maurice

Maurice Frankel

Director, Campaign for Freedom of Information

Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA, UK

Tel: 020 7324 2519 | www.cfoi.org.uk | http://twitter.com/CampaignFOI

1 Like
4

I agree with @MauriceFran
We need to focus on the bigger picture here.
The expected general election in autumn will be the real opportunity to reinvigorate the opengov agenda.

Let’s not say that the new PM will be an opportunity, but just stick to outlining the urgent need for return to opengov.

5

Hi everyone,

As you can see - the action plan has now been published!!!

I think it makes sense to stick to the statement as it was drafted previously (‘assuming the action plan is published’), which pointed to needing high level political leadership and stopping further backsliding on open government/transparency/participation/accountablity.

As Maurice pointed out, no new Conservative leader at this point in time is going to suddenly focus all their efforts on openness, so changing the statement to ask for a new leader to act will fall on deaf ears.

I will publish the statement tomorrow morning (UK Time). In the meantime, feel free to tweet the action plan/retweet twitter.com/opengovuk

Best

Andreas

6

Thanks Andreas. Can you also cross post the report onto the UK home nation forums. Thanks.

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